Quotes of the day

posted at 10:42 pm on May 10, 2011 by Allahpundit

“As governor, Palin demonstrated many of the qualities we expect in our best leaders. She set aside private concerns for the greater good, forgoing a focus on social issues to confront the great problem plaguing Alaska, its corrupt oil-and-gas politics. She did this in a way that seems wildly out of character today—by cooperating with Democrats and moderate Republicans to raise taxes on Big Business. And she succeeded to a remarkable extent in settling, at least for a time, what had seemed insoluble problems, in the process putting Alaska on a trajectory to financial well-being. Since 2008, Sarah Palin has influenced her party, and the tenor of its politics, perhaps more than any other Republican, but in a way that is almost the antithesis of what she did in Alaska. Had she stayed true to her record, she might have pointed her party in a very different direction…

“While other states reel under staggering deficits, budget cuts, and protests, Alaska has built up a $12 billion surplus, most of it attributable to Palin’s tax. Galvin estimates that it has raised $8 billion more than Murkowski’s tax would have. But given the corruption that plagued the PPT, a better benchmark might be the tax it supplanted — the one put on the books after the Exxon Valdez spill. By that measure, Palin’s major achievement has probably meant the difference between a $12 billion surplus and a deficit.

“What happened to Sarah Palin? How did someone who so effectively dealt with the two great issues vexing Alaska fall from grace so quickly? Anyone looking back at her record can’t help but wonder: How did a popular, reformist governor beloved by Democrats come to embody right-wing resentment?…

“Where true Palinism could be most productively applied is on the issues consuming Washington right now: debt and deficits. Palin’s achievement was to pull Alaska out of a dire, corrupt, enduring systemic crisis and return it to fiscal health and prosperity when many people believed that such a thing was impossible. She did this not by hewing to any ideological extreme but by setting a pragmatic course, applying a rigorous practicality to a set of problems that had seemed impervious to solution. She challenged supposedly inviolable political precepts, and embraced more-nuanced realities: Republicans sometimes must confront powerful business interests; to govern effectively, you have to cooperate with the other side; you sometimes must raise taxes to balance a budget; and doing these things can actually enhance rather than destroy your career, whatever anybody says. True reform — not pandering to the base — established Palin’s broad popularity in Alaska. This approach is sorely absent from most of what happens in Washington these days.”

***
“Alas, as [Yuval] Levin suggested might happen and as Green says has happened, Palin came almost immediately to inhabit a different role in the American body politic—not the ‘maverick’ she was chosen to be by the self-proclaimed maverick McCain, but rather as a populist villain-victim (depending on which side you were on). The fault here lay not with her attackers but within her. She embarrassed herself in two interviews, and decided the blame lay not with her own ill-preparedness but with the media that had come after her. Understandably enraged by the misogynistic and practically psychotic attacks on her, she came to embrace her status as a kind of martyr for the social-conservative views that had not been the truly distinguishing features of her meteoric political career up to that moment. She found herself in Harry Truman’s kitchen, and she couldn’t take the heat.

“In some ways, the story of Palin is a story of temptation. Rather than sticking to her guns and deepening her political credentials and her knowledge base, she embraced her celebrity instead. And in doing so, she didn’t defeat her critics and enemies; she capitulated to them. Listen, it’s her life and her fortune and she is free to do what she wishes with it. And there’s no telling what the future holds for anyone in America. But she had and has more raw political talent than anyone I’ve ever seen, and, alas, as phenoms go, it looks like she is headed for a Darryl Strawberry-like playing career.”

***
“[W]hile Green’s piece may be a bit more sympathetic than, say, the dishonest sleaze put out by Michael Joseph Gross last September or what’s coming next from Joe McGinnis, it’s just the other end of the same continuum. In every case, Palin is a failure in need of explanation. In some cases that’s semi-thoughtful, if politically slanted as here, and in others it’s Joe McGinnis comparing her to Hitler on national TV. It’s the difference between feeding the dog Kibbles and red meat.

“I had a look over my archives and noticed the number of threats Palin has endured in the last 12 months. Remember the envelope of white powder sent to Dancing with the Stars? How about the death threats she received in the wake of the media’s execrable coverage of her Facebook map? How about the stalker who’d threatened to kill her family and was found by the FBI about 50 miles from her house.

“And that’s just the serious stuff. I’m leaving out all the endless nonsense like the big splash when Sarah Palin’s daughter fixed her hair in Haiti. That was an international news story believe it or not. Ah well, just move on to the next attack. Did you know that Trig isn’t really her baby?! Maybe Joshua Green can write a 3,000 word piece about how Palin, a victim of her own hubris, failed to overcome the Trig-truthers when she had the chance. There’s at least one more Alaska vacation in it for some enterprising journalist.”

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“What happened to Sarah Palin? How did someone who so effectively dealt with the two great issues vexing Alaska fall from grace so quickly? Anyone looking back at her record can’t help but wonder: How did a popular, reformist governor beloved by Democrats come to embody right-wing resentment?…

Well the self appointed gatekeepers of the progressive media tried to have her banished for daring to point out back in 2008 during his coronation that the new Emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes.

“Poor decisions” are all in the eye of the beholder. Considering many of the same think every choice BHO has ever made counts and genius. And I can tell Palin’s record beside that of Obama’s is brilliant on all counts.

When someone states something like this, they’re obligated to innumerate what they are asserting. Otherwise its just more of the same establishment narrative talking.

This early voting crap is for the birds, let the GOP candidates with the weakest spines fight over the early campaign scraps and remain long targets for the MSM to pick apart and have them empty out their coffers of cash before the new year even starts.

The smart ones should not declare until just before third quarter of the year. That way momentum and fresh cash will be infused into their campaigns where they get to change and dictate the issues and the tempo. Less time for the MSM vultures to eat away at them until the primaries.

“Poor decisions” are all in the eye of the beholder. Considering many of the same think every choice BHO has ever made counts and genius. And I can tell Palin’s record beside that of Obama’s is brilliant on all counts.

When someone states something like this, they’re obligated to innumerate what they are asserting. Otherwise its just more of the same establishment narrative talking.

Sharr on May 11, 2011 at 2:08 AM

She quit as Governor and was unable to effectively articulate her reasons for doing so. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that she also didn’t give much notice to her Lieutenant Governor.

Her hostile and tactless response to the Giffords shooting elevated Obama’s later speech.

And I think she made some poor endorsements. Notably Christine O’Donnell and Joe Miller. And I suspect the bad publicity hurt a few Republican candidates in key races, some of which were close.

I do wonder what her future’s going to be. She’s too unpopular in her home state to be elected to office there. She’s too associated with that state to run for office elsewhere. She’s too toxic to be a credible presidential candidate now, and there are too many rising stars for 2016 and beyond (Rubio, Martinez, Sandoval, Jindal, Portman, Pence, Christie, Haley, Toomey, West, etc.) for her to be a credible force in the future. She’s also too unreliable to be selected for the next Republican president’s cabinet.

I haven’t seen anything to suggest that she can deliver hours of content every day, so this suggests talk radio is not in her future. Nor have I seen much recently to suggest an ability to connect with people or express an interest in what they’re saying, which are generally requirements for a TV host.

She quit as Governor and was unable to effectively articulate her reasons for doing so.

Mister Mets on May 11, 2011 at 3:02 AM

Oh I will gladly correct you, because you are wrong. Your failure to understand Palin’s stated reasons for quitting doesn’t mean she was inadequate in her articulation of them. It may in fact mean that you are either a moron, hellbent on following the media’s narrative, or both.

She’s not running. If you were Bristol Palin and you knew your mother was running for POTUS would you sign up for a stupid reality show where you could inadvertently embarrass your mother and cost her the election?

Would you?

NickDeringer on May 10, 2011 at 11:21 PM

Or Bristol found a way to promote the Palin brand to a different audience , while making money on it.
The show as it’s described doesn’t sound embarrassing.

Rather than sticking to her guns and deepening her political credentials and her knowledge base, she embraced her celebrity instead. And in doing so, she didn’t defeat her critics and enemies; she capitulated to them.

Yes! The super secret Palin strategy once again out thinking the common folk. Palin always 10 steps ahead using her super magical political powers!!!

You C4P kids are too much.

rickyricardo on May 11, 2011 at 6:03 AM

I dont know if and I cant promise you it will be a success, but it looks like a smart thing by the palins.
The show can trash some of the negative narratives out there.

Bristol has no reason to wreck the gravy train by creating a scandal.
The more she can indirectly promote her mom , the longer she can stay in business , it’s symbiotic.
Why do you think liberals were outraged by Bristol on DWTS.

She knows she’s a target carrying the name Palin, if she does coke like Bidens kids or creates any other real scandal, it’s over. She makes more money than most people if she plays this safe. She can do coke later…

The mere fact that we are being subjected to still another hit piece on Sarah Daniels, insures and cements the reality that she he is the most desirable and the most fear (by the left and the RINO right.

Your failure to understand Palin’s stated reasons for quitting doesn’t mean she was inadequate in her articulation of them. It may in fact mean that you are either a moron, hellbent on following the media’s narrative, or both.

gryphon202 on May 11, 2011 at 3:06 AM

Bwahahahahahaha!!! Seriously? More irrational justification for her abdication?

The left wingnut Obamamedia went after Palin with a vengeance reserved for no one else because she skewered Obama like no one else and because she is unabashedly pro life, pro traditional family, pro American and a woman who lives her Christian values. In other words she is everything that liberals hate and that I love. Sarah is the embodiment of feminism I have waited for, for 40 years.

No, it doesn’t really work. I’m pretty sure that the “hit pieces” on Daniels, unlike those on Sarah, are almost invariably either 1) examinations of his record/proposals, or 2) recaps of some stupid, unforced error he has made.

Sarah Palin hit pieces usually focus on supposed character defects, distortions of her record, her purported lack of intelligence/gravitas/intellecutal curiosity, the goings-on of her uterus, her family (I don’t seem to recall anyone going after Daniels’ children), etc., etc., etc.

…..because she is unabashedly pro life, pro traditional family, pro American and a woman who lives her Christian values. In other words she is everything that liberals hate and that I love. Sarah is the embodiment of feminism I have waited for, for 40 years.

The mere fact that we are being subjected to still another hit piece on Sarah Daniels, insures and cements the reality that she he is the most desirable and the most fear (by the left and the RINO right.

See how that works?

JetBoy on May 11, 2011 at 7:18 AM

What hit piece on Daniels , Obama explicitly said Daniels is a serious candidate…

But she had and has more raw political talent than anyone I’ve ever seen, and, alas, as phenoms go, it looks like she is headed for a Darryl Strawberry-like playing career.”

Now this is really offensive. I watched Daryl Strawberry play in Puerto Rico while he was sentenced-he could play, but as soon as the baseball game was over, he was handcuffed and taken away. In Puerto Rico. He waltzed right in front of me with the officers escorting him out of the stadium. Yeah I had a “WTF” face.

Daryl Strawberry had broken a record at the college he attended in Arkansas. My brother smashed it and now his name is in Strawberry’s place. If anything, Strawberry’s baseball stats are there only for name recognition but he DID break the law.

Why in the world >nevermind< there's a comparison between a drug addict and an ex-governor that smacked down men in her own party and the opposite and in two years left billions in surpluses?

I’m not saying Palin and family haven’t been subjected to insane, real attacks in the past, and still. But Palinistas deflect and do the same thing to other candidates…all the while somehow keeping a straight face while doing it.

I’ll criticize Palin (and others, including Daniels) when I feel it’s deserved. And praise her and others, as I have, as well. But with the radical Palinistas, there’s never, ever anything that Palin can do wrong. Ever.

I’ll criticize Palin (and others, including Daniels) when I feel it’s deserved. And praise her and others, as I have, as well. But with the radical Palinistas, there’s never, ever anything that Palin can do wrong. Ever.

I’ll criticize Palin (and others, including Daniels) when I feel it’s deserved. And praise her and others, as I have, as well. But with the radical Palinistas, there’s never, ever anything that Palin can do wrong. Ever.

JetBoy on May 11, 2011 at 7:50 AM

You said Palin didn’t have any own original ideas, what original ideas has Daniels put out that makes you all giddy?

The class issue plays directly to Palin’s strengths. Look at the recent polls. Her strongest numbers come from the lowest income groups. These people can be found in swing states. Some of them were also once known as Reagan Democrats. Palin has been carrying on a dialogue with these voters for quite a while. Not in the pages of the Atlantic but on Dancing with the Stars, Facebook, and The Learning Channel.

Andrew Breitbart: Sarah Palin, unlike the rest of the GOP, understands how today’s pop culture influences everything, including politics, and how to use it. “Palin’s the only GOP candidate to understand how culture influences politics (not vice versa), but he believes that that’s why the mainstream media targeted the former Alaska governor. “They want to destroy her,” he told us, “because they [media] recognize that she has a transcendent pop culture factor.“

Criticism of Palin doesn’t automatically make an article a hit piece (although I have trouble thinking of many articles that have fairly presented her record and then proceeded to disagree with it). And not all criticism of other candidates is legitimate.

Even though this is probably the view of 99% of “Palinistas,” you can keep on pretending we’re all a bunch of slavish cultists who wantonly apply double standards. You’ll just be wrong.

JetBoy, it’s been three years. It hasn’t stopped. Email account hacked-Daddy a Democrat, nice coinkydink-Alaska’s taxpayers paid for the complaints plus the Palins paid $500K to deal with every single one of them. NONE prevailed. If I keep writing all of what she’s been through as a reminder to some of us that won’t change anybody’s mind. Democrats won’t stop until she wears a straitjacket.

Go ahead and criticize her, but remember she’s not an incumbent. Suggest to us which candidate has the best chance to beat Obama.

The MSM attack Sarah because they want us to vote for her so Obama can beat her….

Okay…..

An example….well 2…

1) The MSM attack Rush because they want us to listen to him, because he is ineffective.
2) They attack Fox for the same reasons.

Palinista logic = pretzel! lol

csdeven on May 11, 2011 at 7:46 AM

I have never seen or heard a “Palinista” say that she suffers attacks from the MSM because they want us to vote for her. Where are you getting that from? Methinks you are the one with Pretzel Logic (which, incidentally, happens to be the title one of my favorite Steely Dan albums).

Andrew Breitbart: Sarah Palin, unlike the rest of the GOP, understands how today’s pop culture influences everything, including politics, and how to use it. “Palin’s the only GOP candidate to understand how culture influences politics (not vice versa), but he believes that that’s why the mainstream media targeted the former Alaska governor. “They want to destroy her,” he told us, “because they [media] recognize that she has a transcendent pop culture factor.“

She found herself in Harry Truman’s kitchen, and she couldn’t take the heat.

What a comedian. There is not one single man or woman in the entire establishment of both parties, the “news” media, Hollywood, and the blogosphere who would last a month under such malicious reportage and organized slander. Not one. It’s easy to say this when you’re on the inside looking out, safe and snug in your little bubble of naive (yeah, mega naivete) contentment.

Most of these people–if you write or say one nasty little thing about them in print or on TV–start bawling their little eyes out and yap about lawsuits.

The truth is, there all lightweights and marvel at the lady that won’t be felled by their tactics.

BTW, a day or so back, I had an epiphany. After getting advice from some very sagacious posters I learned that getting along, making friends and being agreeable here at H/A is what we’re here to do. I do hope that you will enjoy the friendly, new, cuddly MJBrutus.

“In 1993, Cheri Daniels left her husband with their four daughters and married another man in California. She returned a few years later, reconciled with Daniels, and the two were remarried in 1997. That is, in a nutshell, the story. The national press first picked up on it last year when it was buried at the bottom of an 8,600-word Weekly Standard profile.

But much is unknown. Why did she leave Daniels? Why did she come back? That she would be reluctant to publicly answer such delicate questions in front of the nation seems only natural.

A senior Republican official who worked in the Reagan White House said that “quite understandably, that’s a difficult chapter in your life, and whether you’d want to talk about that, if only for a few times, it’d be something you’d have to talk about.”

And of course, there is no more brutal kind of politics than a presidential race. Already in South Carolina — home to down and dirty campaign smears such as the allegation in 2000 that Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) adopted daughter from Bangladesh had actually been fathered out of wedlock with a black woman — there are the beginnings of a whisper campaign sowing doubt about the current state of the Daniels’ marriage.”

One week of Palin campaigning will weigh more than all the BS ever written in the Atlantic about her.

Viator on May 11, 2011 at 4:34 AM

When/if she announces/declares, the MSM will cover her like dirt on Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs”, and that sinking feeling will hit millions on the left that Sarah Palin could indeed be elected President.

agreed. Just compare Trump to Palin. Trump the big bad as* couldn’t take one night of the MSM/WH attacks.

unseen on May 11, 2011 at 8:27 AM

I still don’t agree with you there, unseen. On April 30–May 1, before Bin Laden was double-tapped, Trump was leading just about every headline from the Associated Press on down to the alphabets and major cable news networks about everything from his potty mouth to having dodged Vietnam to his being a Grand Dragon wizard of the KKK. It was a complete clusterf@ck of mass establishment hysteria. The WHCd was just the in-yo-face culmination of all this, from sources claiming he was booed unlike no one else having attended the dinner. No biggie. The Donald will live another day to wallow in his billions, and f@ck his gorgeous supermodel wife.

Andrew Breitbart: Sarah Palin, unlike the rest of the GOP, understands how today’s pop culture influences everything, including politics, and how to use it. “Palin’s the only GOP candidate to understand how culture influences politics (not vice versa), but he believes that that’s why the mainstream media targeted the former Alaska governor. “They want to destroy her,” he told us, “because they [media] recognize that she has a transcendent pop culture factor.“

The Donald will live another day to wallow in his billions, and f@ck his gorgeous supermodel wife.

RepubChica on May 11, 2011 at 8:44 AM

I say one night but your correct the attacks started during the lead up to the WHCD that week. Still up until the WHCD dinner Trump was standing up fighting back. After the dinner he gave a phone interview on fox news where he got a good one liner in and then tried to pivot to gas prices. Since then I haven’t seen him much. His polls numbers got wiped out and his TV show is down 23% in ratings. I hear he was on greta this week so maybe he isn’t done yet.

My point is that his support fled, he wasn’t able (maybe not willing) to fight for his support. He allowed the WH/MSM to shot him down with no major push back. Like you say what does he care, he has his money and wife he really doens’t need the hassle. So maybe it’s a function of those things too. But if you want a fighter than Palin is the only one that has proven she can take a punch, get up and continue the fight.

I really have not seen a possible candidate besides Palin that was able to survive the MSM 2 minutes of hate better than Palin.

Candidates like Mitt and Mitch and huck do not lend me much confidence that once the MSM trains their sights on them that they will be able to deal with it.

My point is that his support fled, he wasn’t able (maybe not willing) to fight for his support. He allowed the WH/MSM to shot him down with no major push back.

I really have not seen a possible candidate besides Palin that was able to survive the MSM 2 minutes of hate better than Palin.

unseen on May 11, 2011 at 9:00 AM

The support he built always seemed fickle to me….while Palin’s built a core following that’s almost like family. Still, you must admit, her approval ratings are not very good at this point and her battle is steeply uphill with a backpack full of 200 pound media death match weight. The Donald was doing pretty good, up until the onslaught went full steam ahead and he had to retreat. We definitely haven’t heard the last of him. I just can’t sit back and be happy about the media destroying someone’s standing because they don’t like them and their politics. They do it to Joe the Plumber your neighbor, and they do it to famous established billionaires without batting an eyelash.

And we wonder why our party has become gunshy and weak. It all begins and ends with the media. In one small way or another, we are all subservient to it and the potent influence it wields to make or break reputations.

If I was sure that Gov. Palin and her family could take even more abuse, it would be very very interesting to watch that campaign. I’m sure the media would do everything in their power to beclown themselves and be totally unaware.

John Edwards only became disliked by the media and political elite ruling class after it was proven he is a total scumbag.
Your point is a epic fail.

IowaWoman on May 11, 2011 at 4:06 AM

My point was that the wrong people (the liberal media, the political establishment, etc.) could still have the right reasons for hating someone. This doesn’t suggest that you should never support a candidate the establishment despises.
But it’s not a great idea to make that a major reason for supporting an individual.

For example, the media/ establishment would hate a Republican who is often obnoxious, rhetorically clumsy, wrong and/ or unprepared to discuss policy (see Donald Trump). So that would be a situation in which supporting the least “popular” candidate would backfire.

Sometimes supporting the least “popular” candidates works out very well, but I doubt the majority of Ronald Reagan’s supporters in 1980 cared one way or the other what the liberal media thought of him.

We’re trying to get out of here to go to VA, so that means getting the house to the point where mowing the lawn is the most we have to worry about for the youngest boy wonder. And all of the varying stupid doctors appointments. I need to warn everyone, if you don’t go to the doctors for 13 years, they make it up by making you go every other week when they finally get you. Just kidding, sort of.

If I was sure that Gov. Palin and her family could take even more abuse, it would be very very interesting to watch that campaign. I’m sure the media would do everything in their power to beclown themselves and be totally unaware.

Cindy Munford on May 11, 2011 at 9:22 AM

I dont see how media could create any more abuse.
Soon it’s time to strike back…

That was really funny. They are so threatened by her that now they are resorting to pseudospiritual psychobabble. Why not mind your own damned business and deal with your own issues I would say to the author. Threatened by integrity and popularity much?

Everything that Sarah Palin was to that point — a fairly moderate and notably competent governor highly admired as a genuine “uniter” — was nugatory.

The convention speech was a signal, traumatizing event in the fragile collective psyches of the Left: their inviolable messiah was ridiculed for the first time. It was not only that it happened but the way it happened — with a cheery offhandedness that reduced Obama, for those 45 minutes, not only to naked meagerness but finally to the vaporous conceit he really was.

And it was not only this. The event served as the unveiling of a truly confident conservative — a profoundly threatening phenomenon for the Left.

In those moments, the Left all over America congealed itself into a throbbing Blob of unified destruction.

rrpjr on May 10, 2011 at 11:11 PM

Oh my! You just made my day! What a way with words. I think I might just have a crush on you.